May 23

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May 23, 2019 Week: 21 \ Day: 144

86004:   H 47° \ L 35° \ Average Sky Cover: 80% 

Nearest wildfire:  516mi. Nearest lightning:  1762mi

Wind:   6mph\Gusts:  15mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 85°[2000]   Record Low: 23°[1927]

Mar Averages: 68°\34° (3 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

Challenging the meaning of life

is the truest expression

of the state of being human.

Viktor E. Frankl

Random Tidbits

Rice is the seed harvested from the long, grass-like stalk of the Oryza sativa plant (Asian rice) or the Oryza glaberrima (African rice).

As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in Asia.

From East Asia, rice was spread to South and Southeast Asia. Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization.

Observances This Week

Ramadan 5/5-6/4

Cannes Film Festival: 15-26

National Safe Boating Week: 18-24 

EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Week: 19-25  Link  
International Heritage Breeds Week: 19-25  Link  
National Eosinophil Awareness Week: 19-25  Link  
National Medical Transcription Week: 19-25  Link
National New Friends, Old Friends Week: 19-25
National Stationery Week: 19-22
National Unicycle Week: 19-25
World Trade Week: 19-25 

Brain Injury Awareness Week: 20-26 Link 
Healthy and Safe Swimming Week: 20-25  Link
National Backyard Games Week: 20-27 
National Tire Safety Week:  20-27 Link  
World Schizophrenia Awareness Week: 20-27 Link

Fleet Week (NY): 22-28

Observances for Today

Declaration of the Bab Day
Eat More Fruits & Vegetables Day 
EMSC (Emergency Medical Services) Day Link
International Day to End Obstetric Fistula
Lucky Penny Day

National Taffy Day Link
World Crohn's and Colitis Day Link
World Orienteering Day Link  
World Turtle Day

My Rambling Thoughts

All good. More rain and a little snow. Spring at 7000’!

Dentist did a quick impression for the crown. Hopefully the new crown will be in the office within 10 days. I can live with that.

Second day of blood treatment went well yesterday. Do it once more, just before Trans-Siberian and I’ll be good to go.

Another 45 tirade against elected officials of these United States. I guess he never attended a Civics class anytime in his big education. Sad.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

You have a drawer with 10 pairs of black socks and 10 pairs of white socks. How many times do you need to blindly reach inside the drawer and take out a sock, so that you get a matching pair?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1400’s

1430 Joan of Arc is captured at Compiegne and sold to the English

1500’s

1568 The Netherlands declares independence from Spain

1700’s

1701 Captain William Kidd is hanged in London after being convicted of piracy and the murder of William Moore

1785 Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals

1800’s

1813 South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator")

1853 Buenos Aires gains independence from Argentina (reunited 1859)

1863 Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan

1900’s

1900 Associated Press News Service forms in NY

1911 NY Public Library building at 5th Avenue dedicated by President Taft

1931 Whipsnade Zoo opens in Bedfordshire, England

1934 American outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow - Bonnie and Clyde - are killed by police in an ambush near Sailes, Louisiana

1958 Mao Zedong starts the "Great Leap Forward" movement in China

1971 Rock group Iron Butterfly disbands

1988 Maryland stops sale of cheap pistols on Jan 1, 1990

1991 US Supreme Court bars subsidized clinics from discussing abortion

1992 US President George H. W. Bush orders Coast Guard to intercept boats with Haitian refugees

2000’s

2016 Chinese archaeologists announce findings of earliest use of barley in China to make beer, Shaanxi province 3400-2900 BC

2017 UK raises terror threat level to critical following Manchester bombing

2018 Hamburg, Germany, becomes the first city to ban diesel cars on some roads

Birthdays Today

1707 Carolus Linnaeus

[Carl von Linné],

(d. 1778: @70: strokes)

Swedish botanist, explorer and the Father of Taxonomy,

born in Råshult, Sweden

1824 Ambrose Burnside,

(d. 1881: @58: heart attack)

American soldier, politician and industrialist (Governor of Rhode Island, 1866-69),

born in Liberty, Indiana

1908 John Bardeen,

(d. 1991: @82)

American physicist, electrical engineer and co-inventor of the transistor (Nobel 1956, 1972),

born in Madison, Wisconsin

1910 [Benjamin Sherman] Scatman Crothers,

(d. 1986: @76: lung cancer)

American actor, singer, dancer & musician

(Chico and the Man, The Shining),

born in Terre Haute, Indiana

1928 Rosemary Clooney,

 (d. 2002: @743: lung cancer)

American singer (Come On-a My House) and actress (White Christmas),

born in Maysville, Kentucky

1934 Robert Moog,

 (d. 2005: @71: brain tumor)

American engineer (Moog synthesizer, Moog Music),

born in NYC, New York

1950 Martin McGuinness,

(d. 2017: @66: rare disease)

Irish Sinn Féin politician and IRA member,

born in Derry

86- Joan Collins,

TV actress

61- Drew Carey,

American actor & comedian (Drew Carey Show),

born in Cleveland, Ohio

45- Ken Jennings,

American game show contestant,

born in Edmonds, Washington

44- Jewel Kilcher,

pop singer,

married to Ty Murray

Historical Obits Today

90’s

@97-1937 John D. Rockefeller,

American industrialist and philanthropist

80’s

@89-2017 Roger Moore,

British actor (The Saint, James Bond)

@89-2002 Sam Snead,

American golfer ((7 PGA Tour major titles; US Masters 1949, 52, 54)

@86-2015 John Nash,

American mathematician (subject of movie "A Beautiful Mind")

and Nobel laureate,

dies in a car crash

@85-2015 Anne Meara,

American comedian and actress

(Stiller & Meara, Archie's Place, The Other Woman),

mother of Ben Stiller

@83-1981 George Jessel,

American toastmaster general and entertainer (Diary of Young Comic)

@81-1975 Jackie "Moms" Mabley,

comedienne (Amazing Grace)

50’s

@58-1868 Kit Carson,

American frontiersman, Indian fighter and army officer,

dies of an aortic aneurysm

@56-1701 William Kidd,

Scottish pirate legend,

hanged at London's execution Dock

Puzzle answer:

Only 3 times. Once you have two socks of the same color, they already form a matching pair.